


The Favor

by Imcalledzorro



Series: The Favor [3]
Category: MacGyver (TV 2016), Stargate SG-1
Genre: Action/Adventure, Crossover, F/M, Gen, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Russia
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-02
Updated: 2019-07-28
Packaged: 2020-06-02 23:25:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 17,689
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19451641
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Imcalledzorro/pseuds/Imcalledzorro
Summary: After an artifact is stolen from Stargate Command, General Carter calls in that favor that James MacGyver; Oversight at Phoenix Foundation owes her. The search for the stolen artifact takes both teams to Russia and beyond.  The third part to The Recruit & The Reminder.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> A/N: A huge shout out to Snowecat for her invaluable help! If you haven't read 'The Recruit' or 'The Reminder' I would suggest you do that. As always I do not own Stargate or MacGyver (sad day, lol). I do hope that you enjoy this story as much as I enjoyed writing it!

Dr. Daniel Jackson yawned as he navigated around a few airmen down the strait hallway back to his office. He had just gotten out of a very long and very boring meeting with SG-7 who wanted to show him what they had found, in detail. Right then all he wanted coffee, sleep, and some time with that artifact that SG-12 had brought back a couple of days ago. He hadn’t gotten a chance to really get a good look at it, but he had some thoughts on what it might be. He decided to skip the mess hall’s coffee and just go straight for the Nespresso machine that Jack had gotten him for Christmas a couple of years ago. With his mind occupied by thoughts of coffee and the new device he almost slammed into Vala Mal Doran.

“Well if I knew that was all it took for you to plaster yourself to me, I would have stood here long ago.” She greeted him teasingly.

Daniel sighed, used to dealing with Vala. “Move. Coffee.”

With a sigh she acquiesced, letting him pass by to his precious coffee machine. “I do believe you love that thing more than you do me.” She pouted.

Daniel decided it was best to keep his mouth shut. He held up one of the pods, “Want one?”

Even though he wasn’t looking at her he just knew the expression he had on her face. The ‘Daniel why aren’t you paying me enough attention’ look. He steadfastly didn’t capitulate; instead he stared at the coffee dripping into his ‘hopefully’ clean cup. When his was done he swiftly switched it out for her favorite mug that proclaimed ‘World’s greatest Boss’. When she added it to his mug collection she informed him that he should know what kind of boss she was, and he had thought about throwing it away many times. With a sigh he turned around expecting to encounter her wrath, but she was inspecting one of the artifacts he had on his shelf. Content not to rock the boat he waited until her coffee was finished before getting Vala’s attention.

“It’s ready.” He swiftly doctored it the way she liked it and handed it over.

“Thank you, darling.” She purred.

He narrowed his eyes, “What is it and how much does it cost?”

“Daniel! Really?” A girl can’t simply visit her boyfriend?”

It had taken them a while to get to this point, when they had announced that they were dating Daniel was pretty sure he heard Teal’c mutter, ‘finally’, but that was neither here nor there.

“Vala, you don’t simply drop by for a visit. You usually come because either you want something or you are bored. Which is it?”

Vala pouted like a small child, even going as far to stick her lower lip out. When that didn’t work she sighed, “Fine! I’m bored. Samantha doesn’t have anything for me to do, Teal’c is off world, Mitchell is on leave with his sick dad, so that –leaves-you.” She enunciated the last three words clearly.

Daniel barely suppressed another sigh, it wasn’t that he didn’t love her, but her presence tended to grate on his nerves after too much time together. And since they were living together, he tried to get some distance while they were at work. “Well since you are here I might as well put you to work.” He walked over to where he had stored the artifact SG-12 brought back intending to get Vala’s input on it.

“What do you think of …” He trailed off not finding the artifact.

Vala looked at him quizzically, “What do I think of what?”

“I put an artifact that SG-12 brought back from P3X-581 right here, but it’s not here now.” Daniel started looking around the area for it.

“You know how you can get. Maybe you set it someplace else?”

Daniel noticed that there were a couple of books stacked next to where he thought he had left the artifact. “No, I’m pretty sure that left it right here because I left these books beside it. I was going to use them to help me figure it what it was.”

“You don’t even know what it was?” Vala sounded surprised.

“I don’t know every single artifact brought in. But I’m pretty sure it was Goa’uld in design. Maybe a gift or something of value.” He murmured as he searched. “It may have been a….

He stopped his searching to look at Vala. She was sitting on his table twirling her hair. “What did you do with it?”

She stopped twirling. “Are you really accusing me of moving your stupid artifact?”

Daniel narrowed his eyes at her. “Yes…No. I don’t know. You’ve done it before.”

“I thought we had gotten further than this.” She looked genuinely disappointed. And Daniel felt bad for accusing her.

“I’m sorry Vala. It’s been a long day and I just wanted to unwind by studying this new artifact for a while.” He opened his arms gesturing for her to come to him. She slid off the table and slowly embraced him.

“This does not mean you are forgiven.” She muttered into his shoulder. “Remember I like shiny things. And expensive things.” Daniel rolled his eyes, everybody knew what Vala liked.

He took a step back separating the two of them. “Let me find this artifact then we will worry about how I can say I’m sorry, ok?”

“All right.” She acquiesced with a pout. “But you won’t forget, right? I have found the perfect ring, for when you ask me to marry you.” She had been dropping hints about getting married ever since she had moved in.

“How about if you look on the right side of the room and I look on the left?”

“I would love to, but I don’t know what this artifact looks like.”

That stymied Daniel for a second. “It’s…” He gestured a height and width with his hands. “Might be made out of … ummm.” He stopped snapping his fingers trying to get his tired brain to pull up the information.

“Do you have a picture?” Vala prompted, knowing good and well how Daniel catalogued off-world items.

“Yes! Perfect!” Daniel grabbed his tablet quickly accessing his artifact database and found the one he was looking for. Then the two of them scoured the room, but didn’t turn up anything.

“I am beginning to think that it grew legs and walked off.” Vala smiled at Daniel. “That is the correct saying, right?” Daniel nodded absent mindedly. “And since it walked off we’ll need to get leashes for all of your artifacts so they won’t do the same.”

“Yeah, sounds good.”

Vala sighed. “Daniel you’re not even listening to me.”

Daniel sighed pushing up his glasses and rubbing his eyes. “Sorry, you’re right. I’m going to Sam’s office to get her to pull up the security cameras; maybe they will have caught my artifact walking away.”

Vala brightened, “So you were paying attention! I’m just going to stay here.” The last part was said to Daniel’s departing back.

Daniel quickly made his way to Sam’s office. Well he first tried to go to her old office, but then remembered that she was now the base commander and turned around. When he finally did arrive, he knocked at her open door frame before going in.

Gen. Samantha Carter greeted him with a warm smile. “Hey! How’s it going?” Then reading his expression her smile dropped off her face. “What happened?”

“I think an artifact disappeared from my office.” Daniel explained as he settled into one of the chairs sitting in front of her large desk.

“You think?” She questioned.

“Yes.” He pushed up his glasses rubbing his eyes and forehead then in a rush answered. “I went to study it today after a long meeting, but it wasn’t where I left it. I accused Vala of stealing it,” He read the judgment on Sam’s face. “I know. Anyway we searched the office, and it simply isn’t there. I was hoping that you could bring up the security cameras and I could see who was in there that could have taken it.”

Sam nodded, turning to her desktop she quickly pulled up the security system selected the cameras covering Daniel’s lab and let them play. Daniel walked around the desk so he could have a better look at the screen.

“About what time did you leave your office?” Carter asked so that they could have a starting point.

Daniel thought for a second, it was before lunch, “Try about 1000 hours.”

Sam dragged the curser to the correct time then let it play in real time for a few seconds. “I’m going to speed this up or it’ll take us all day.” She said as she made it go faster. They caught several people going back and forth, until they finally caught someone going in. Sam froze the frame and zoomed in.

“That’s Alexi Zatkoff. He’s on the Russian team. Every once in a while I’ll have him come in and help me with a translation or with one of the artifacts. He has an undergrad in archeology, and has the ancient gene.” Daniel explained as he leaned in for a closer look.

“So do you ask him to come by lately?” Sam asked studying the image.

“No, let it play, I want to see how long he stays.”

Sam let it play, and Zatkoff was in Daniel’s office for about five minutes, and when he emerged they could tell he was holding something in his right hand. But he was trying to shield it using his body. Like a child might try to sneak something by their parents.

“Ok, it that me or was that suspicious?” Daniel asked backing away from the computer.

Sam pushed back her chair so she could see Daniel. “Highly suspicious. Let’s look through the rest of the footage, until you arrive back at your office. But Zatkoff is on my short list.”

Sam scooted back up to the computer and they continued looting though the footage. A couple more people including Vala, entered his office, but all left seconds later and none were holding anything.

With a sigh Sam pushed her chair back again. “I’m going to get in touch with Col. Chekov to see what he has to say. Do you want to stay for that or...?” Sam trailed off. It was well know within SG-1 how Daniel felt about Russian politics.

Daniel looked at his watch quickly standing up. “You know, I think I’m going to go get some food down in the mess hall. I hear it’s sloppy joe day! Maybe I’ll grab Vala and call it a date.” While he was talking he started walking backward out of Sam’s office. With a wave he was gone.

*****

Carter’s smile vanished as she picked up the phone to call Col. Chekov. She found the man placating and annoying, so she avoided communication with him as much as possible. With a sigh she punched in his office number, after two rings he picked up.

“Col. Chekov’s office, what you want?”

The brusque tone had Carter’s hackles raised. “This is Gen. Carter. I need to see you in my office.” She made her tone as crisp as possible.

“Why I have to do that? Why don’t we talk on the phone, like we doing now?” he wheedled.

Carter stifled the urge to tell him that his fat self needed the exercise, instead she answered him by saying, “Because we have a very important matter to discuss that can’t be handled over the phone.”

With a sigh he said, “I’ll be right there, General.” With that he hung up.

A smirk appeared on Carter’s face, she now held the upper hand which was always important when dealing with the Russians, well at least their Russians. She didn’t have to wait long until the Russian commander made his appearance. With a heavy sigh he heaved himself into the chair that Daniel had just vacated. For a brief seconds she wondered if it would give under his ponderous weight, but the chair held.

“To what do I owe this wonderful trip to your office?” Chekov asked with an air of bafflement. “We could have conducted our business over the phones much easier.”

“What do you know about Alexi Zatkoff?” She figured she wouldn’t waste any time on pleasantries.

Chekov frowned. With a sigh he pulled out his glasses and brought up the tablet he had brought with him. While muttering Zatkoff under his breath he scrolled through the tablet. “Ah! Here we go. Alexi Stanaslov Zatkoff, Sergeant, went to college, wife, two daughters, brown eyes, brown hair.” He threw up his hands, “what more do you want to know?”

Carter leaned forward, arms on her desk, “his current whereabouts.”

Chekov frowned again. “How should I know?

Carter gave him her best ‘I’m in charge do as I say look’.

It seemed to work because Chekov started grousing while he sent out a message on his tablet. “Why all this interest in a lowly Sergeant?” He narrowed his eyes, “You have no jurisdiction over him, he may work with your team, but according to our treaty he is under my command.”

“I’m well aware of the treaty. I simply want to know his whereabouts on MY base.” Carter wanted to remind him of who was exactly in charge. His tablet dinged so Carter waited as he read the message.

“He is on vacation.” He rose from his seat. “Now is there anything else you needed to know?”

It was obvious that the question wasn’t real, so Carter just shook her head letting him leave. Now her suspicious were really raised. She got back on her computer pulling up the SG rotation list. If she remembered correctly the Russian team had been working with SG-12, and she was pretty sure they were due to go off world tomorrow. So that would be an odd time to take a vacation. She drummed her fingers trying to think of how to pursue this. She couldn’t actively investigate one of the Russians as per their agreement.

She was mulling over what to do when her personal line rang. Grabbing it without looking at who was calling she answered, “This is Carter.”

“Hey Carter. What kind of bread is it that you like? I can never remember.”

It was the voice of her former C.O. and current husband, retired Gen. Jack O’Neill. This brought the smile back to her face, he could never remember which was her preferred bread. “The kind in the green bag that has all the seeds.” She heard him rummaging around, and figured that he must be at the grocery story.

“Got it!” He said triumphantly. “So how’s everything going under the mountain?”

She sighed, leaning back in her chair and proceeded to tell O’Neill everything that had been going on. Silence reigned for a few moments.

“Why don’t you get that bird organization to snoop around for ya. They’re spies, they live for that shit.”

She couldn’t believe that she forgot the favor the Phoenix Foundation, well James MacGyver owed her. If they could track down Alexi Zatkoff/the artifact then she would have her answers and not be violating their agreement. “That’s brilliant! I could kiss you!”

A throaty laugh was her answer. “I’ll be waiting for that kiss when you get off work.” Then he hung up.

She pressed the slash button and quickly dialed the number she had for James MacGyver.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A huge shout out to Snowecat for her invaluable help! So the first chapter was just the SGC, now it's the Phoenix agent's time to shine! I loved to read Nancy Drew & Hardy Boys crossovers as a kid, and my favorite part was when they would meet up, so this was a special chapter for me! As always I do not own Stargate or MacGyver (sad day, lol). Hope you enjoy, and don't forget to comment or leave a kudos if you do! Thanks!

Angus MacGyver and Wilt Bozer were in the Phoenix Foundation’s men’s locker rooms changing into clean clothes. Them plus Desi Nguyen and Riley Davis had just gotten off a Phoenix jet and were about to get a bite to eat before they had to debrief their boss, Matty Webber, about their last mission. Mac had just finished tying his boots when both his and Bozer’s phones started buzzing.

“It’s the Boss lady.” Bozer announced. “She wants us in the War room pronto.” He shoved the phone into his pocket. “Man, we can’t catch a break around here! I remember when I was itching to get out into the field, now I would love to get some quality time in the lab where nobody is shooting at me, or I’m not having to play hide and seek with mobsters, or…”

Mac laughed, patting his friend on the shoulder as he walked past him. “I get it Boze. Now let’s go see what Matty wants.” The two headed out quickly joined by Riley and Desi.

The four arrived at the War room a few minutes later, but instead of Matty waiting for them it was Oversight, otherwise known as James MacGyver.

“Dad? I thought that you had…” Mac trailed off.

“I did, but something more important came up.” Jim was about to continue, but Mac cut him off.

“Dad you know that for the chemo to be most effective you have to…”

This time Jim interrupted his son. “I’ve got this don’t worry about me. I have a job I need for you to do, and it can’t wait.” Mac nodded, he was still not convinced, but he knew his dad well enough to know there was no talking him out of it once he had his mind made up. So he stepped back. “Ms. Nguyen, I appreciate you showing up, but if it’s ok with you and Mac, Matty needs you on another op. This one is going to be observe and report only.”

Desi looked at Mac who nodded his consent. “Ok, you guys stay safe out there.” She lingered for a moment then turned around and walked off. The door was about to close when Leanna Martin slipped in.

“Sorry I’m late. Traffic was horrible.” Leanna apologized, quietly shutting the door then moving to stand next to her boyfriend Bozer.

“If you could engage the privacy settings Ms. Martin, I would appreciate it.” Oversight asked Leanna. Once the privacy setting was in place Jim started his briefing. “What I am about to tell you is top secret. Another covert agency reached out for our help in finding an object that was carried off their base.” He hit the button on the remote for the big TV. “This Is Alexi Zatkoff he is a Russian citizen and works on one of our secret bases. Two days ago he walked off the base with an artifact they had discovered. What this artifact is or what it might do we don’t know.” He clicked again and a picture of the artifact popped up next to the picture of Alexi.

“Does this base have a name?” Bozer asked. He was standing beside Mac near the back of the room. While Riley had a seat near Oversight at the front of the room, and was taping away at her laptop.

“Let’s call it the SGC and leave it at that, shall we?” Oversight answered cryptically. Mac elbowed Bozer, who just shrugged. Oversight continued, “What I need for you to do is find Zatkoff, determine if he had the artifact, and report back to me. If he does have the artifact we will be handing this off to the Air Force.”

“What does the Air Force have to do with this?” Bozer asked. Oversight sent him a glare. “I’ll quit with the questions.” Bozer pantomimed zipping his lips and throwing away the key.

“I think that would be wise. Now Bozer since, as my son pointed out, I’ll be otherwise engaged I would like for you to run point on this mission. That means you’ll be staying here.” Bozer nodded looking excited. Oversight turned to Leanna. “I asked you to join us on this op to help Bozer, not even Director Webber has been read in on this mission. Angus, Riley, do what you do best. I’ll have a more complete briefing waiting for you on the plane. You are wheels up in three hours. Good luck”

Bozer and Leanna stayed back to discuss running the op while Riley and Mac went to get their go-bags for the trip. Mac walked up to Riley’s right side. “So what did you find out about the SGC?”

“Nothing, which is weird. All organizations leave at least something, but I couldn’t find anything on a group calling themselves the SGC.” Riley shook her head. “Maybe we’ll find some more information when we land?”

“Maybe.” Mac answered.

Desi was waiting for them outside the locker rooms. She looked her two teammates over, “So I guess this mission is one you can’t talk about?” They nodded. “Stay safe out there.” Riley entered the locker room, but Desi stopped Mac with a hand on his arm. “Seriously keep your head on a swivel, Jack will be disappointed in me if something happens to you and I’m not there, and I DON’T want to disappoint Jack.” Desi stared intently at Mac.

“I’ll be careful, I promise!” Mac said solemnly.

Desi nodded, and let go of Mac’s arm allowing him to enter the locker room.

Three hours later saw the two of them pulling up to the Phoenix Foundation’s private hanger. As they jumped out of Mac’s Jeep, and grabbed their gear they resumed their conversation from earlier.

“So we know the SGC, whatever it is, is affiliated with the Air Force.” Mac stated as he walked up the steps leading to the open door of the plane. “So it could be a covert arm….”

He stopped talking when he saw there were three people already sitting on board. Riley pushed up against him to try to see what had made him stop so suddenly.

“Hello!” a middle aged guy with glasses greeted them by waving. Mac wasn’t sure what to do. Should he call his dad, Bozer or were they supposed to be there or what?

“Oversight did say that a more complete briefing would be waiting for us on the plane.” Riley whispered to Mac.

The older gentleman with grey hair spoke up, “Come on in, get comfortable, and we’ll fill you in on what’s going on.”

The third stranger a middle aged lady with dark hair pulled back into a ponytail smiled at them, “Don’t worry, we don’t bite.” After a snort from Glasses, she amended, “Unless you ask nicely.” She beamed at her remark while Glasses groaned, and Grey hair just shook his head.

Mac and Riley entered the jet setting their gear with what appeared to be the stranger’s gear; they then took seats beside each other on a couch where they could see the three strangers. As soon as they sat down they could feel the jet start to taxi down the runway.

Mac was the first to speak, “Ok so who are you and what are you doing on our plane?”

“Direct, I like that.” Grey hair stated. “I am retired Gen. Jack O’Neill. Two L’s. The lovely lady is Vala Mal Doran, and the geek with the glasses is Dr. Daniel Jackson. Care to introduce yourselves?”

“Shouldn’t you know who we are?” Riley asked. “I mean _you_ are on _our_ plane after all.”

Gen. O’Neill sighed, “Look, I’m doing this as a favor to my wife. I’d rather be sitting by my cabin fishing, instead I’m jetting halfway around the world with Danny and Vala to make sure you guys don’t get your asses buried in shit you know nuthin’ about. Now, if you would care to introduce yourselves or else I’m gonna call you something I make up.”

“Trust me you don’t want him to make it up.” Dr. Jackson added shaking his head.

“They do tend to be rather abysmal.” Vala agreed.

“You can call me MacGyver or Mac.” Gesturing to Riley, “This here is Riley Davis, she is our computer expert.” Riley gave a short wave.

“Mac? What kind of name is Mac?” Gen. O’Neill groused, sounding very much like another Jack that Mac knew. “Is that a first name or last name?”

“Last.”

O’Neill gave him a look, “So what’s your first name?”

“Angus.” Mac hoped that Gen. O’Neill didn’t go the same path that Jack had.

Instead Gen. O’Neill winced, “Yeah, I can see why you go by Mac. I probably wouldn’t ever tell anybody what my first name was if I had that moniker.” He paused for a second, the shook his head, “Ever!” he stated emphatically. Dr. Jackson cleared his throat, which seemed to be a sign because O’Neill pulled out a file folder and handed it to Riley. “Here is all that we know about Zatkoff.”

Riley took the proffered file opening it to study, with Mac looking over her shoulder. Upon seeing that most of the file was redacted she held it up so that the SGC members could also see it. “How am I supposed to find him when most of the information had been censored?” Mac could tell that Riley was upset.

“Now that’s a lot of black.” Vala commented. “I wondered if they used a whole marker on it?”

Riley looked over the file again. “It certainly looks like it.”

Gen. O’Neill just shrugged, “I was told that you can work wonders with just a little bit of information. Now, if ya don’t mind I’m going to get my afternoon nap in. Hey Daniel remind the stewardesses that I like my nuts heated.” With that he turned his chair around and proceeded to fall asleep.

Riley took the folder again, and after grabbing her computer went to the back where she could spread out and got to work. That left just Mac with the two SGC guests.

“So…” Mac started, his fingers itching for a paperclip to work on.

After a second Dr. Jackson echoed back, “So…”

“What are you a doctor of?” Mac asked, trying to get a conversation started. He was regretting not bringing that book he had been reading, or slipping some of the paper clips from the War Room into his pocket.

“Linguistics, and Archeology.” Dr. Jackson answered. “Do you have any degrees?”

Mac chuckled a little. “Does an honorary bachelor’s of science count? I dropped out of MIT after two years to join the Army.”

“Let me get this straight, you dropped out of _MIT_ to join the _Army_?” Dr. Jackson sounded confused.

Mac let out a small chuckle, “I felt like I was wasting my time at college just talking about helping others, where in the Army I actually was helping.”

Dr. Jackson nodded. “So what did you do while you were in the Army?”

“I worked EOD.”

Dr. Jackson nodded, but Vala wrinkled up her forehead. “What is EOD?”

“Explosive Ordnance Disposal.” The answer came from Gen. O’Neill who was apparently _not_ asleep. “Well in the past five minutes you’ve lost my respect then earned it back twice over. You EOD guys do an amazing job. Were you involved in the ‘Day of a 1,000 IED’s’ a couple of years back?” Gen O’Neill had sat up straighter in his seat and turned it back around to face Mac.

“Yes, sir. Another EOD tech and I disarmed over 100 that day. I tracked down the guy who was behind most of it too.” Mac hated thinking about the Ghost and all of the bloody aftermath.

“Drop the sir, It’s just Jack or O’Neill.” He pointed at Dr. Jackson, “and you can call that one Danny, it makes his eyes cross.” He smiled and turned his chair back around seeming to drop back to sleep.

“I would prefer if you called me Daniel, not Danny.” Daniel said mildly

“But Danny what’s the fun in that?” Vala asked mischievously.

Once Daniel and Vala started their own conversation Mac decided to go back to see if Riley had found anything. She was sitting on the couch with all the papers in the file pulled out in front of her. Mac sat beside her on the couch further away from their visitors.

“So you found anything yet?”

Riley darted a look at the SGC group. “On them or Zatkoff?”

Mac shrugged, “either?”

Riley punched a few buttons, “I found a phone number for Zatkoff, and we have a possible address. I’ve let Bozer know and he will tell the pilots. As for our uninvited friends, I couldn’t find anything on a Vala MalDoran, but I did find a Facebook page for a Vala Jackson.”

Riley turned her rig so that Mac could see what she had found. It was the same lady on the plane. As Mac scrolled he saw that it was mostly shared celebrity gossip news, pictures of her or of her and apparently her boyfriend or husband, Riley wasn’t sure, Daniel, and a couple of group photos. In some of the group photos was O’Neill, usually with his arm around a blonde lady.

“Interesting.” Mac said as he turned the laptop back. Riley took it and clicked a couple of more things.

Riley chuckled, “Oh it gets better!” She slid the laptop over again, this time it was a profile of one Dr. Daniel Jackson. “I’ll tell you the highlights as you look through it. He is a doctor of both archeology, and linguistics. Speaks over 30 _known_ languages, _and_ was laughed out of academia for stating that the pyramids were landing pads for aliens.”

Mac turned to look at Riley, “Really?” He knew he looked incredulous.

“Yep. His presence drops off the radar completely in 1995, but in the past several years has had a very limited presence.”

Mac nodded, “Ok, what about O’Neill?”

Riley hit a few more keys, “The man is lifetime Air Force, retired as a Lt. Gen. He’s was in every major conflict since Vietnam, until 1994. In ’94 his son, Charlie, accidently killed himself with O’Neill’s service weapon.”

Mac drew in a sharp breath that hit really close to home for him, bringing back images he’s tried his best to forget. Shaking his head he opened his eyes to see Riley looking at him concerned. “Go on.” He urged.

So she continued. “Afterwards he retired, but then was reactivated 1997. After that all I could dig up are his awards, which he has plenty including the Purple Heart, the Distinguished Service Medal, and the Master Space Operations Badge.”

“Space Operations?” Mac questioned. Riley just nodded. “I wonder if it has to do with the SGC and all the top secret stuff.”

Riley shrugged, “I don’t know. I went to the dark web to see what I could dig up there on the SGC, got a couple of hits, but they were so outlandish that I’m not even sure if they bear repeating.”

Mac was intrigued. “Like what?”

“Aliens. That it’s a base where the military works with aliens. Like ‘Men in Black’ Stuff.”

“I never thought I would say this, but it’s a good thing that Jack isn’t here. He would be eating this up with a spoon!” Mac chuckled.

“The man does love him a good conspiracy theory. Which reminds me, O’Neill and Jack might have met.” Mac raised his eyebrow prompting her to continue. “So there is mention in O’Neill’s record of being an Iraqi POW, and being rescued by some Delta’s. And I think I remember Jack talking about pulling a ‘flyboy’ out of an Iraqi prison. “ Riley looked at Mac expectantly.

“I wouldn’t be surprised, stranger things have happened did I tell you about that time Jack.…” Mac continued sharing one of Jack’s farfetched tails that he swore really happed. Later Mac stretched, and looking at his watch he groaned. “We have another twelve hours before we land in Russia. I’m going to see if I can get some sleep.”

Riley stifled a yawn, “Yeah, that sounds good right about now.” Mac moved over to one of the seats across from Riley, while she cleaned off the couch and stretched out on it. “I wonder how many hours of sleep we have gotten on a plane in the past three years?” She murmured.

With his eyes closed Mac responded, “Too many to count.” Then the two friends drifted to sleep. They both got several hours of sleep in before Mac woke up with his stomach growling. He rubbed his eyes trying to remember that last time that he had ate, but quickly gave up. Still trying to wake up he looked around the cabin of the plane, it looked like everyone else was still dozing, and all the shades were pulled making the cabin dim. He stood up and stretched, trying to get all the kinks out before heading back to the well stocked gallery.

“Grab me something too.” Came Riley’s groggy voice.

Mac looked back to see Riley sitting up looking still half asleep. “Powerbar?” He questioned.

“Whatever.” She shrugged. “I’d kill for some coffee though.”

Mac laughed, “You wish is my command.”

“Remember that the next time I need to you come over and fix something, alright?” Riley finally had her eyes open and was sending him a mock glare.

Mac noticed that someone was stirring up where the SGC team sat, a few minutes later Vala sauntered down the aisle. Upon seeing the coffee in Mac and Riley’s hand she asked.

“Anyway you can make another one of those?”

“Sure, any special requests?” Mac answered.

“Just make it as strong as possible. Daniel doesn’t function without coffee in his system.” She explained. “Now, is the ladies room through here?” She pointed toward the galley door.

“Yep.” Riley answered.

When she came back though she had an assortment of snacks in her hand and took the coffee Mac had prepared back up to where her group was sitting. The whole cabin was quiet for the next several hours, everybody was quiet. Then the pilot got on the intercom announcing that they were an hour out from landing.

Riley stretched handing Mac her laptop. “Hold this while I get the file back together, I guess it’s time to brief the others on what I found.”

“That would be great,” A voice from behind them answered. Riley startled, while Mac had seen O’Neill approaching. “Hope I didn’t scare you.” The look on O’Neill’s face said otherwise. He lounged against one of the seats. “So ya find out all the juicy details yet? “ Mac froze. O’Neill’s eyes went from one to the other. “So my favorite color is peridot, I love fishing and The Simpsons. I don’t usually lock my front door.” He paused then. “I really should lock that thing. Anyways, there should always be cake.” He paused and thought about it for a second. “That should just about cover it. Now let’s start this briefing, if you did indeed find something.” Mac and Riley followed him back to the front where Vala and Daniel were waiting.

“So I traced Zatkoff’s phone to this address.” Riley pulled up a map of an apartment building. “The phone hasn’t moved in the past…” She changed the screen. “Five hours. So it’s a safe bet that he is in there.”

Jack reached for the laptop, examining the pictures. “So from what I see it looks like a standard Russian apartment, one entrance, maybe a fire escape? Daniel?” Daniel shook his head. “So no fire escape should make it easier to keep an eye on him.”

Upon arriving that morning at the airport Oversight had arranged for a surveillance van to be waiting for them. They loaded up, with Daniel driving headed towards the apartment building that Zatkoff should still be in.

They had been set up in the van across the street for three long hours of Vala complaining, Riley listening to music on her headphones, O’Neill getting antsy, Daniel reading a book, while Mac kept an eye on the place. When the fourth hour rolled around O’Neill finally cracked.

“I wish I had some thermal vision glasses right now. We have been sitting here for four hours and even though tech girl swears his phone is in there, we haven’t seen him. I’m starving and I’ve got to pee!” O’Neill complained.

“Tell me about it. I’m so bored, I’m contemplating calling the cops just to see what would happen.” Vala agreed. Daniel shot her a look. “What?”

Daniel opened his mouth, then stopped with a shake of his head. Mac smile at their antics before climbing into the back, “I think I can make you a pair of thermal glasses.” He commented as he scrounged around to see if he had all the parts to make a pair. “Yep, I can! Just give me a few minutes”

“You can _make_ a pair?” O’Neill sounded incredulous.

Mac wasn’t paying the others any attention as he was too fixed on building his gadget. “Yeah, I can. All I need is a little of…” he started to explain what all he was doing, but O’Neill interrupted him.

“Don’t want to hear it! Just make it work.” O’Neill interjected. With a sigh he looked at Daniel, “I can’t escape the science nerds can I?”

Daniel, who had moved into the spot that Mac had vacated shot O’Neill a wry look. “You poor thing, maybe you will learn something.”

“If you could hand me the binoculars then I can put this on there and we should have thermal vision.” Mac said. Daniel obediently handed them over, after a few minutes Mac handed them back to Daniel, but O’Neill look them out of his hands.

O’Neill put them to his eyes. “Holy Hannah, it worked.”

Mac thought he sounded shocked.

“Oh for crying out loud!” O’Neill exclaimed. He then handed the binoculars to Daniel. “Tell me what you see.”

It took Daniel a few minutes, but once he found what O’Neill wanted him to see he uttered, “Oh crap!”

“Well are you going to tell us what you were ‘oh crapping’ about or just leave us in suspense?” Riley asked.

Daniel pulled down he glasses, “If this is correct, it looks like Alexi Zatkoff is dead.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Dum dum dum! The plot thickens, lol! So in the original MacGyver in the episode 'Blood Brothers' it is explained why Mac hates guns, because one of his childhood friends is killed while they were playing with a gun. In the current MacGyver it hasn't come out and said it, but when Bozer told Leanna about his little brother dying in a similar fashion, I'm assuming that Mac was there too, and that's the reason he doesn't use guns.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A huge shout out to Snowecat for her invaluable help! As always I do not own Stargate or MacGyver (sad day, lol). Hope you enjoy, and don't forget to comment or leave a kudos if you do! Thanks!

“Wait what?” Vala asked. She yanked the binoculars turned thermal glasses from Daniel’s hands and looked for herself. “Well the fellows do seem to be correct. There is a man shaped lump on the floor that is not the red color that everybody else is. But maybe he is taking a nap in the cold?” The last part sounded hopeful.

O’Neill clamored into the back. “I’m going in, so we can see if he is dead or what and hopefully get that dang artifact back.” He drew a pistol out from the storage unit in the back and checked the rounds, then he drew out a black tactical vest and strapped it on.

“I’m coming with.” Daniel stated, after Daniel said that O’Neill grabbed another gun and vest handing them to his friend.

“Well then I’m coming too.” Vala said petulantly, even though she was still looking through the binoculars and giggling. Daniel rolled his eyes.

“No you’re staying in the van with Davis.” O’Neill ordered. Then he turned to Mac and said, “You can come with us if you want. I just want a couple pairs of eyes to keep a lookout in case the dead guy isn’t Zatkoff and he comes strolling in.”

Mac nodded. “I’ll come.” O’Neill nodded then handed him a vest like he and Daniel were already wearing. After Mac secured the vest Jack offered him a pistol. “No, thanks. I don’t use guns.”

O’Neill frowned. “You did go through basic didn’t you?”

Mac let out a sigh, “Yes, I did go through basic. Yes, I do know how to use a gun. I just choose _not_ to use one!”

With a shake of his head O’Neill stuffed the extra gun into his boot, and inserted the comms that Riley had gotten for him and Daniel. “Is this thing on?” He asked.

“I’m reading you loud and clear!” Bozer’s voice came across the ear buds clearly.

“Once you enter, Zatkoff’s apartment is on the fourth floor, all the way to the back. Apartment number 4C.” Leanna instructed them over the comms.

O’Neill turned to Daniel. Daniel signaled he was ready, so O’Neill turned back to Mac. “Stay tight on our six, do you understand.” When he got confirmation he pulled the van door open and the three men spilled out into the street. They quickly crossed the street, and entered the apartment building. Ignoring the elevator they quickly ascended the stairs. “Next time we take the elevators. My knees hate these stairs.” O’Neill complained.

“You know Sam is right. You are going to have to get that knee replacement sooner rather than later.” Daniel chimed in.

O’Neill quickly shot his long time friend a glare. “I don’t remember asking you. Hey kid, did I ask Daniel if I should have a knee replacement?”

Mac looked anxious, and O’Neill almost regretted asking him, but he finally answered. “No I don’t remember you asking, but knee replacements are getting better by the day. In fact a study I recently read stated.…”

“Yeah, I get it. Thanks.” O’Neill cut the kid off. Everybody was an expert. They finally came to the right floor. Daniel took the door and the three of them quietly advanced down the hallway to Zatkoff’s apartment. Starting from the stairwell door O’Neill stuck to hand signs, which thankfully the kid seemed to know. When he indicated that Daniel would kick the door down the kid stopped them.

In a whisper, “I think the door might be unlocked, and if it isn’t I can get us in quicker more quietly than kicking it down.”

O’Neill thought about it for a second, the kid had already pulled off one trick, he guessed it was time to see if he was a one trick pony or not. Signaling him to go ahead, Mac quietly approached the door, slowly trying the handle. It was unlocked and the door quietly swung inside. Mac stepped back, allowing Daniel and O’Neill to step in first with Mac on their heels.

The place was trashed. Chairs were overturned, glass was shattered from a couple of picture frames, an overturned coffee table, and right where the thermal imaging showed him, was the dead body of one Alexi Zatkoff.

O’Neill activated his comm., “We have confirmation. Zatkoff is dead. We are going to search the place, and see what we can turn up.”

“Got it.” Bozer replied.

“Do you need any help?” This was from the tech girl. So he let the kid handle it.

“If you could start searching to see if there are any surveillance cameras in the area, and if we could get a video of the murderer either coming or leaving. From what I’m seeing here Zatkoff was strangled after he was beaten around the apartment.” The kid answered.

O’Neill stepped towards Daniel turning off his comms, while motioning for Daniel to do the same. Then he spoke where he hoped the kid couldn’t hear him. “Does this look like something our glowy-eyed friends might do?”

Daniel looked around, “Yeah, it does. Zatkoff wasn’t a small guy so to be big enough to strangle him; he either has to be bigger, stronger….”

“Or a Goa’uld,” O’Neill finished for him. “Yeah, that would make sense. If he stole a Goa’uld device for a Goa’uld. Ya know, I miss the days when we thought there weren’t any aliens on Earth.”

Daniel nodded, “We also need to keep in mind that I don’t have a clue what this particular artifact might do, or why anyone would go out of their way to steal it.”

“I found something!” O’Neill and Daniel turned to where the kid had called out from. He was standing behind a tall potted plant holding a disposable phone.

“Good work, Kid.” O’Neill complemented. Turning to Daniel, he asked “Think you can run it out to the girls so the tech one can get to work on it.” He tapped his comm. back on “Do you think you can get any information off of it?” He heard a snort, and the kid was grinning.

“Yeah, I think I can do that.” The tone sounded suspiciously sarcastic. “Daniel will be over with it in a few.”

Daniel took the phone from the kid, and quickly left the apartment building. O’Neill decided to see what the kid could do. “So, tell me what you see.”

The kid stepped back and started examining the scene visually. After a few minutes he walked to the door. “I think Zatkoff let our murderer in, since there are no obvious pick marks and the door isn’t damaged.” He then walked to the little dining area adjunct to where the body was found. “Their talk must have turned into a melee, I’m guessing the Zatkoff wouldn’t tell where the artifact was so the murderer upped their game by beating Zatkoff until he told where it was or the murderer killed him, then found it.” The kid looked at O’Neill expectantly.

“I agree.” O’Neill hated to admit it, but he was impressed. He was about to say more when the tech girl came over the comm.

“You guys need to get down here. I’ve found some stuff that you need to see.”

“Come on kid, lock the door, and let’s get out of here. I’m getting the heebie-jeebies by being in here.” O’Neill commanded. The kid hesitated. “What?”

“Shouldn’t we call 911 or something?”

“Don’t worry about it, I’ll call his CO, and he will deal with it.” That seemed to satisfy the kid and they went quickly, well as quickly as he knees would allow him, made it back to the van. Once they were all settled the tech girl pulled up a grainy picture of some dude clutching the artifact in one hand and a cell phone in the other.

“Meet Slavomir Vladimirovic better known as ‘Scar’” She then pulled up a profile picture of Scar and looked expectantly at the SGC team. With a sigh she turned around, “They call him Scar because of the scar through his eye just like the lion on ‘The Lion King’.”

“Oh I get it now! That was a good movie! The singing rodent was particular amazing.” Vala commented. It was silent for a beat before the tech girl continued.

“Scar is connected to the Russian Mob, the Serbian Mob, and a whole host of other crime syndicates including one Tiberius Kovac.” The last name got a deeper frown from the Kid. “From what I could find in the Phoenix files that we had on him he acts as a collector of sorts. He gets you what you want. I pulled the first picture off a video across the street. It is time dated about eight hours ago.” She then switched the picture to one of a lady with two younger girls it looked like a portrait shot with all three of the girls grinning. “So from the cell phone I was able to determine why a seemingly decent soldier went rouge stealing this artifact. His wife and daughters were kidnapped and have been used as hostages.” She clicked to another photo this time the girls and mom were tied to chairs with a blindfold over their eyes. Each looked terrified.

Each member of the team reacted in disgust. Daniel asked the question first, “Have they been released?”

Tech girl shook her head. “I haven’t found signs of them being released or killed, so I believe they are still being held hostage. They will probably either be killed or sold into human trafficking.”

The kid piped up, “We’ve got to save them.”

“The phone that was used to send the pictures of his wife and daughters is currently in Paris, and has been for the last week. Since it is a disposable phone that is all that I can tell you.”

“That’s good enough. Hey Kid, call the pilot and let him know what’s going on. Daniel, want to get us moving?” After basically pushing Vala, who had been more or less sitting on his lap, Daniel got into the driver’s seat and started them back to the airport.

“The pilots know you’re coming and are ready to go just as soon as ya’ll get on board. And Riley I’ve advised Oversight of the new developments. ” Came a ladies voice through the comm. O’Neill had forgotten he had his in.

The ride to the airport was quick and tense, everybody lost in their own thoughts. Once they had boarded the plane, the tech girl found a seat and her hands started flying across the keys. She was no doubt trying to find Scar’s hiding place or where he was holding the wife and daughters.

They were about an hour into the three hour flight when Riley got everybody’s attention, and had them gather around her in the front of the plane. She held up a tablet with a map of Paris on it. “I’ve narrowed down the location of that cell phone. It’s not in Paris proper it is in Villejuif on this block here.” She tightened the focus even smaller to include just that block. ”Remember I don’t know if it is Scar or who is on the other end of this cell phone, just that it was the one that sent the pictures of Zatkoff’s family.” Riley cautioned.

Daniel took the tablet from her and studied it for a few seconds. “I know where a good café is there. We should be able to keep an eye on some of the area.”

O’Neill clapped Daniel on the shoulder, “I love it when you volunteer to drive.” Daniel groaned. The rest of the ride went quickly. The whole team was ready to make their information actionable.

Just like last time, there was a van waiting for them at the airport. When Vala commented on this out loud Bozer answered over coms, “You can thank Oversight for that. He _knows_ people.” They quickly loaded up and were headed to the little café that Daniel recommended. The area was starting to get congested as it was beginning to be around dinner time, but Daniel luckily found a parking spot in the back, and they all trooped inside. Daniel greeted the lady at the counter who seemed delighted to see Daniel. She soon gestured for the whole team to join her in the back room they used for events.

O’Neill spied someone already in the back room, ‘ _wait a second’_ he thought, _‘I know that hat! I know that trench coat!’_ “That you T?” He called out.

Teal’c stood up from the table greeting his friends with a slight bow.

Vala was the first one to Teal’c grabbing him for a big hug. “It’s been too long Muscles! Glad you’re here!” O’Neill just patted the big guy on the shoulder as a greeting. He then turned to the two newbies ready to introduce them, then he realized that he didn’t remember their real names. Daniel wasn’t any help he was talking quietly to the French lady who lead them back there. Thankfully the Kid introduced himself.

“Hi, I’m MacGyver, or Mac if you want.” Teal’c gave a slight bow in greeting.

“Riley Davis.” The tech girl introduced herself.

“It is a pleasure to make your acquaintances MacGyver and Riley Davis. I am Teal’c.”

Once they got seated at the round table and the French lady, who Daniel introduced as Juliette, brought them something to eat and drink for a light dinner O’Neill had to ask, “So T what are you doing here in France with us?”

“General Carter told me of the plight you were in during my weekly check in, so I decided that you could use my help.” Teal’c stated

“We can definitely use you on the team, Big Guy.” O’Neill said fondly as he patted Teal’c’s shoulder. They quickly brought Teal’c up to speed, and outlined the plan they had.

“So if we can get two people to causally walk around the neighborhood maybe they can spot a house that looks like it might be hiding kidnap victims.” Daniel suggested

“Or we can just look for a flag that says kidnapped victims are here!” O’Neill snipped back.

“Well do you have a better idea?” Daniel snapped. O’Neill opened his mouth to answer, but came up with nothing. “That’s what I thought. Who knows we might get lucky.” Everybody snorted at that.

“I’ll go,” the Kid volunteered.

“I wish to accompany you MacGyver.” Teal’c rumbled in his deep voice.

“Ok, so T and the Kid take the block to see if they can find the house.” O’Neill stated.

“Hey Mac, do you think you could whip up something to track the cell phone if it is being used?” Riley asked. “Kind of like you did for that RFID chip in the dog for your ATF friend?”

Mac thought on it for a second, “I suppose.”

“How about first you walk the block, then we can worry about building a tracking do-hickey.” That got nods from the newbies. Then the Kid and Teal’c were out the door

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Mac was glad to be out walking, they had done a lot of traveling and sitting for this case so getting out to stretch his legs was nice. He had missed going on his runs at home, so he was happy to be strolling along looking for a house that Scar might be holding the Zatkoff family in. There was the added bonus that it was late evening, the weather was perfect, and the evening sky was ablaze with color. Despite the perfect late afternoon there was barely anyone else on the streets with them.

“So Teal’c where are you from?” He figured if he was walking with the man he might as well try to get to know him, plus maybe he would tell them what the SGC stood for.

“A place very far from here.” Was Teal’s reply.

Mac decided to try again. Jack did always say he was tenacious. “So you have known O’Neill and Daniel long?”

“Indeed.”

Mac was getting that Teal’c wasn’t the conversation type. When they passed houses that obviously weren’t being used for a safe house Mac would use the comm. to let those back at the café know to mark that house off. They had turned the corner and were making their way down the last side when Mac caught sight of the back of a familiar figure, even though he had only seen him in pictures. Judging from how Teal’c drew himself even higher Mac assumed that he had spotted him too.

He contacted the others, “I’m pretty sure we have eyes on Scar.”

Teal’c added an, “Indeed,” backing him up.

O’Neill’s voice came over the comms. “Our only choices are to take him or try to tail him. What do ya want to do?”

“Take him,” replied Teal’ c .

“I would have to agree. Nothing we have seen tells us where the Zatkoff’s are being held, and who knows how long it might take for him to go back there.” Mac reasoned. He stopped and looked around for something he could fashion together to help take down the formidable criminal. This was the guy who most likely strangled Zatkoff so Mac didn’t want to take any chances. “Hey Teal’c can you hand me that….” He trailed off when he realized that Teal’c wasn’t standing beside him anymore. Instead the big black man was about two steps behind Scar. Teal’c grabbed Scar’s shoulder and yanked him around, and with one punch to the face the criminal crumbled. Mac had to close his mouth, he though, _‘I wonder if this is how they feel when I do one of my stunts?’_

“He is secured. We are ready for you to come retrieve us.” Teal’s said into his comm. unit.

“On our way.” Daniel answered.

Thankfully the street they were on was mostly deserted and the oncoming dusk concealed them even further. When the van came around the side door slid open. Teal’c and Mac both grabbed an arm and they hauled the heavy man inside.

“Hey Bozer, is there any place we can take Scar to where we can interrogate him?”Mac asked.

Oversight’s voice came over the comms. “I have a place that’s not too far from you. There is an operative there that might be able to help with all this. I’m sending the address to your phones now.” Both Mac and Riley’s phone pinged with the new text.

Riley, who was sitting shotgun pulled out her phone and input the coordinates into the car’s GPS system. “You will reach your destination in two hours.” The female voice of the GPS instructed.

When they arrived at the coordinates Mac and Riley got out to see who the operative that might be able to help was. Thankfully the path to the front door was lit. Mac hit the button for the doorbell, and a second later the door opened revealing Jack Dalton.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I couldn't leave Teal'c and Jack out of this little adventure!


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A huge shout out to Snowecat for her invaluable help! As always I do not own Stargate or MacGyver (sad day, lol). Hope you enjoy, and don't forget to comment or leave a kudos if you do! Thanks

Mac and Riley stood still shocked to their very cores.

“How?”

“Why?”

“When?”

“How?” Were some of the questions that they threw at him.

Putting his hands up Jack told them, “I’ll explain in a little bit, I think ya’ll got a prisoner to bring in?”

Mac about smacked himself, in the excitement of seeing Jack he had forgotten what had brought them there. He quickly started back to the van, but Teal’c and Daniel were halfway down the path dragging the barely conscious man to the back door. Jack opened the door and directed them a room to dump their prisoner in until they were ready to question him.

With Scar tucked away, the entire team congregated in the living room. “Well this is cozy.” O’Neill commented looking around. It was a nice country house, with an open living room, and plushy sofas. The living room was amply lit against the darkness outside. O’Neill bounced a couple of times testing out the recliner he was sitting in. “I think I want one of these for my man cave.” Daniel rolled his eyes, while Teal’s raised an eyebrow. “Yeah, you’re right, Carter would never go for it.” O’Neill said looking disappointed.

O’Neill was parked in the recliner while Mac, Jack, and Riley occupied the sofa. Daniel, Vala, and Teal’c took up the other sofa placed directly across from the first one, creating a U shape around the coffee table.

“Ok, I guess I’ll kick this shindig off. I’m Captain Jack Dalton, Jack to my friends. Right now I’ve been leading the hunt for Tiberius Kovac. This morning, Oversight called me saying that you were hot on Scar’s trail. A couple of days ago we had intercepted a phone call from Kovac to Scar, but were unable to listen in. So when Oversight said that you were after Scar on an unrelated op I asked to be read in, and to see if I could do the same for ya’ll, and here we are!” Jack held up his hands indicating everybody in the room.

“Well it’s nice to meet you Jack. I’m Jack too, well Jack O’Neill. Two L’s there’s another O’Neil with one L and he has no sense of humor. I’m here representing SGC, with Dr. Daniel Jackson.” He indicated Daniel. “Vala.” She waved at Jack. “And Teal’c” He motioned to Teal’c. “We are after an artifact that was stolen from Dr. Jackson’s lab a couple of days ago. So far we know that Scar blackmailed a Russian airman on our base into stealing it for him, but why and where it is are just a few of the questions that we will be asking Scar.”

Daniel looked at his watch. “It’s getting later, and I don’t know about everybody else, but I need a few hours of sleep.” Vala was snuggled up against him with her eyes closed.

“But what about Zatkoff’s wife and daughters? What if they’re sold into slavery while we’re resting?” Mac said. He could not live with himself if something happened to the family just because he wanted a nap.

“Also we don’t know how long it will be before any of Scar’s underlings realize he is missing. I think it’s better to go ahead and interrogate him now.” Jack added his thoughts to what Mac had said.

“I will interrogate the prisoner.” Teal’c stated.

Jack looked the big guy with the hat over, “Who chose you as master interrogator?’

Teal’c lifted an eyebrow. “In my former occupation I was called upon to interrogate prisoners often.”

“Sounds like a great plan big guy.” O’Neill said, then turning to Jack. “We’ll let Teal’c soften him up, then bring him out here and see what he has to say in front of all of us ok?”

Jack was ok with that and told Teal’c to go ahead. After being in the room for just a few minutes Teal’c exited and announced that Scar was ready to be interrogated. They got the living room all set up with Scar sitting in the recliner that O’Neill had vacated. Riley had her laptop open and the video chat open so that Oversight and Bozer could be in on the interrogation too. Teal’c stood right behind the prisoner looking very stern and commanding.

O’Neill asked the first question. “How long do we have before you will be missed?”

Scar smirked at them, “They have probably already missed my presence, and are looking for me even now.”

Teal’c leaned down to whisper something in Scar’s ear. The prisoner visibly paled and quickly spat out, “I won’t be missed!” He glared at Teal’c the elaborated. “I try to vary my schedule so my enemies won’t know where I’m at. So I won’t be missed for a while.”

O’Neill nodded, “Why did you steal the artifact?”

Mac bit his lips, he wanted to ask about the Zatkoff family to see for himself that they were still safe, but he knew better than to interrupt the flow of an interrogation no matter how early into the process it was.

Scar sighed, “Why did I have Alexi steal it or why did I steal it from him?”

Inside Mac was seething at the casualness of his answer, ‘ _didn’t human life mean more to him?_ ’ he thought. He hoped his demeanor didn’t change, but Jack must have sensed something because his friend laid a hand on his shoulder.

“How about both Scar?”

That brought a reaction from the prisoner. “I not a Disney villain! My name is Slavamir, NOT Scar! I have men killed for calling me that” Teal’c leaned down and whispered in the prisoner’s ear. He sighed again, “Fine, I tell. I had very important client…”

O’Neill cut him off. “What’s the client’s name, Scar? We want names, all the names you can give us.”

Scar threw up his hands in the air. “I can’t give you that, he kill me!”

Teal’c leaned down to speak quietly in the prisoner’s ear again. Mac watched as his face paled slightly.

“Ok OK! I tell! Several weeks back I was contacted by Tiberius Kovac to retrieve a certain artifact for him. It took a bit, but I was able to find Alexi Zatkoff who bragged about working with the American’s on a secret base in Colorado Springs. I contact Alexi, but he declines my most generous offer. So I take it up a notch.” He shrugs. “In Russia, things like this happen all the time. This time he gets the artifact, but when I go to pick it up he demands to see his wife, and threatens to contact his superiors in the American Air Force. I cannot let this happen, so I dispose of him and take the artifact for myself.” He shrugged like beating and killing of Zatkoff wasn’t that big of a deal.

Jack had leaned forward at the first mention of Kocac. Then he glanced to O’Neill to get his permission to ask the next question. When O’Neill nods Jack asks the next question. “So what’s the plan to meet with Kovacs?

“I contacted him when I first acquired the artifact. He will call me back in next couple of days to let me know when and where the meet will be at.”

“So are you telling me that you know when and where Kovac will be?” Jack asked. Mac could almost feel Jack’s body vibrating with the promise of a lead.

With yet another sigh Scar answered, “Well I will if you allow me to answer my cell phone when he calls.” He tried to look defiant but every time he would catch a glimpse of Teal’c he would shutter. Mac wondered what the man had said that scared the hardened mobster so badly.

Since nobody else stepped up with another question Mac took his turn, “what is happening with the Zatkoff women?”

Looking baffled Scar answered, “Why you care about women? All they good for is keeping house.”

Mac had noticed that Vala was getting more and more agitated as the interrogation went on, but once Scar said that’ all women were good for was, keeping house’ she almost lunged at him. The only thing that kept her back was that Daniel had a tight grip on her arm. “I’ll show you keeping house.” She struggled to get Daniel to let go of her. “If Qutesh was here, I’d show you exactly what women are good for.”

“I care because they are human beings, and are innocent in all this.” Mac replied.

The mobster shook his head, “I don’t get. They are being held in a warehouse with the other kuckas that will be sold off in several days. Much easier than drugs.”

Vala sneered at him, “I don’t know what you said, but you are disgusting.”

“Where is this warehoused? Mac asked before Scar could answer Jack laid a hand on Mac’s arm. When Mac turned to look at his friend Jack shook his head indicating the Mac needed to back off. Well he had no intentions of doing that so he shook his head.

With a sigh Jack stood up and dragged Mac up with him. They had just gone into the kitchen when Riley came in right behind them.

“What is going on?” Riley hissed. “He was about to give us the location of the warehouse so we could rescue all those women. Have you not been sitting there with us listening to all the crap he’s been saying? I feel like I need to take a decontamination shower after listening to him!”

“Exactly!” Mac agreed scowling at Jack. 

“Listen I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but we can’t go rescue them just yet.” Jack crossed his arms and stood back against one of the cabinets.

“What do you mean we can’t rescue them? That’s why we came here!” Mac was infuriated. Had Jack changed that much in those few months?

With a sigh Jack rubbed his hand through his hair, but was spared an answer by the arrival of O’Neill.

“We can’t go rescue them because it might tip off Kovac.” O’Neill explained.

Jack nodded and continued the conversation, “O’Neill is right. This guy is the most slipperiest snake that I’ve ever tried to capture, and you know my cousin and I tried to catch a lot of them. In fact we used to have this contest where….” He trailed off, Mac figured that he realized that Mac’s angry face wasn’t going away. “If we raid the warehouse where the women are being held then Kovac might get suspicious and go to ground again. This is only the second time that he has popped up since we started this crazy man hunt. He is super careful.”

Mac slowly nodded, he understood, but he didn’t like it.

“Yeah, I get it.” Riley said. “But isn’t there _anything_ we can do to rescue them? Even if it isn’t a full scale rescue? I can’t bear the thought of those girls and their mom sitting there terrified of what’s going to happen next. ”

O’Neill nodded, “We could have someone go in as a buyer and ‘buy’.” He used air quotes around buy. “the Zatkoff women.”

Mac nodded. “That gives us a trial run trusting Scar’s word to see if he tries to betray us.”

“Sounds good, but who is playing the buyer?” Riley questioned.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

“Why does it always have to be me? Can’t someone else play the bad guy for once?” Daniel whined. 

O’Neill was grinning from ear to ear. “Nope!”

“Jack!” Daniel whined again drawling his friends name out.

“Daniel.” O’Neill returned the favor. It was only Daniel and O’Neill in the kitchen then, the others had left to fill everybody else in on their plan. “It has to be you. You speak Serbian and Russian and French so no matter which language they try you’ll know it. Plus you pull off sleazy rich guy really well.”

Daniel shot him a look. “Thanks, Jack.”

O’Neill smiled back despite the insult. “You’re welcome.”

Vala waltzed into the room and went to stand beside Daniel. “Is Jack trying to convince you to play the rich buyer?”

“Yes.” Daniel gripped, glaring at O’Neill.

“You know when we met, you blew my sale with your horrid acting ability. I’ll come with you to make sure that all goes according to plan.

O’Neill smiled, “Perfect!”

Daniel groaned burying his face in his hands, “I need sleep.”

O’Neill seemed to be enjoying this a little too much Daniel thought. “So who all is going? I don’t think we can load up the whole team.”

“You, Teal’c, Scar, and tech girl. We’ll hang back back listening in on comms so if anything goes wrong, which it better not, then help is only minutes away. “

Daniel nodded, “And everybody is cool with this?”

O’Neill snorted, “well it was either this or the women had to stay there until after we take Kovac down.”

“So when do we stage this rescue operation?” Daniel took off his glasses and massaged his eyes; this was turning out to be a bigger headache than he thought, and the lack of sleep was beginning to take its toll.

“As soon as we can, so first thing in the morning. I think it would be too suspicious if we did it tonight seeing as how it’s past midnight.” O’Neill replied. “So you and Vala go find a place to grab a couple of zz’s, and I’ll let the others know the plan.”

Daniel did as instructed and soon the two of them made their way down the hallway to find a bedroom or any place to crash.

**********************

O’Neill entered the living room again. “It’s getting late, so we are going to get the Zatkoff women in the morning. So Teal’s keep an eye on Scar.” Scar growled at the mention of his nickname, which made O’Neill smile. “Night campers!” With that he went down the hall that Vala and Daniel had headed down.

Teal’s stood and took Scar back to the room they had him in earlier, leaving only the Phoenix crew.

“It is so good to see you Jack!” Mac stated again. “I know we talked and video chatted, but it just wasn’t the same.”

“No brother, it wasn’t.” Jack agreed. He slipped on arm around Riley and the other around Mac and pulled them towards him in an embrace, letting them go he looked them over. “It is damn good to be back with my kids. So where’s Desi? I thought I assigned her to keep an eye on your skinny ass. Don’t tell me that you ran her off?” Jack frowned at the last part.

Mac rolled his eyes. “She’s on another assignment. This was supposed to be an easy mission, just an observe and report, until Scar showed up.”

Jack snorted, “You know there is no such thing as an ‘easy’ mission.” The three shared a chuckle, them lapsed into an uneasy silence that Jack broke like he always did. “So have ya’ll heard about the meth gators?” Jack laughed to the twin looks of confusion.

“The what now?” Riley asked still frowning.

“My cousin, the CSI one, tagged me in this meme. Apparently a small Tennessee town….” He snapped his fingers. “Loretto! That was the name of the city. Anyway apparently the PD there made a joke about don’t flush your meth it might lead to gators eating it, and some nitwits have started thinking it’s real. There’s some hilarious memes to go with it.”

Riley’s fingers started flying across her keyboard, no doubt trying to find said memes, while Mac’s forehead was still crunched up in concentration. “I can’t figure out how….”

Jack cut him off, “It’s a joke, turn that big brain off and enjoy the funny.”

Riley started laughing, “You weren’t lying, these memes are hilarious!”

Jack’s eyes lit up again, “how about the Area 51 thing?”

Mac shook his head, “Boze has been sending me memes and videos of that one ever since it popped up.”

The three stayed up for a while longer enjoying each other’s company and catching up on what all they had missed in each other’s lives. Jack took the recliner, while Riley and Mac stretched out on the sofas.

Morning came all too soon, but it brought with it the smell of coffee and breakfast cooking. Sitting up Mac saw that Riley was still passed out cold, but that Jack was missing from his recliner. Standing up he tried to stretch out all the knotted muscles from sleeping on a sofa. Then his top priority was to find a bathroom, and then the kitchen in that order.

Upon arriving in the kitchen he found Jack standing in a trashed kitchen flipping pancakes. There were a stack on a plate, and Jack just added two more to it. Seeing Mac walk in he was greeted by a grinning Jack.

“Good, I’m glad someone’s up. Try one.” He motioned towards the stack waiting. “Bozer gave me his recipe awhile back, so I figured I would try it out.”

Mac trepidatiously grabbed a cooling pancake and took a tentative bite. It wasn’t bad, not up to Bozer’s standards, but not bad. Swallowing the bite he answered Jack’s expectant look. “They’re pretty tasty. All the stuff for pancakes was stocked?” Mac was pretty sure that the ingredients for Bozer’s secret pancakes were not usual safe house staples.

Jack laughed and his whole face light up. “After Oversight let me know ya’ll were coming I stopped by a grocery store a few towns back to pick up some essentials.”

Mac moved over to where the coffee was waiting, and grabbing a mug he poured himself a cup. Hearing someone else coming he looked up to see Daniel stumble in. The man’s hair stuck up in every direction and Mac was pretty sure his glasses were on crooked.

“Please now coffee.”

At least that’s what Mac thought he said. Feeling sorry for the tired man Mac grabbed another mug and filled it with the dark brew. “Do you want any sugar or cream?”

“Give.” Daniel made grabby hands towards the coffee.

“Sorry. Daniel’s not really fit company before his first few cups of coffee.” O’Neill explained as he also stepped into the kitchen past Daniel who had both hands curled around his mug and was making obscene noises. “I don’t what who he loves more Vala or coffee.”

“It better be me.” Vala’s voice drifted in as she appeared in the doorway looking a lot more alert than her boyfriend. “Is there any left or has my fiancée drank it all?”

“Boyfriend.” Daniel muttered as he went for a re-fill.

Vala sighed, “Just practicing darling.”

Mac refilled Daniel’s mug, and poured Vala a cup of her own. “Sugar or cream?” He asked.

“Both please.” Vala answered.

“Make that two.” Riley came up still yawning.

Jack handed Mac the sugar and creamer, and Mac had their coffee’s ready in just a second. “You know Bud, that if you wanted to work as one of those coffee boys you could.”

Mac took another drink, “It’s called a barista, and I’ve got a job thanks.”

Jack held up his hands while keeping an eye on the pancakes. “I’m just saying.”

Mac rolled his eyes and realized that Teal’c hadn’t made his way into the kitchen yet. “Has anyone checked on Teal’c? Would he want a cup of coffee?”

“T’s good, and he probably would. Black” O’Neill answered. Mac poured another mug handing it to O’Neill who then left to give it to his friend. They made short work of Jack’s pancakes and he received high praises for his talents in the kitchen.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Mac, Jack, and O’Neill all listened to the rescue mission monitoring it to make sure everything went smoothly. Daniel and Vala were able to convincingly play a German doctor and his harried wife who wanted to buy a maid and her two young daughters. Vala cooed about how she always wanted children. Teal’c was explained as Herr Doktor’s bodyguard, while Riley stayed in the van to make sure there were no surprises. Thankfully, they were able to get the family out and hand them off to another team that Oversight had sent. On the way back came the call that they had all been waiting for. Riley had outfitted Scar’s phone so that whenever he got a phone call they could all hear it over their comms. So when he answered, it transmitted clearly over the comms.

“Molim” Scar greeted his caller.

“It’s me.” Came the reply in English.

“I think it’s Kovacs.” Riley whispered over the comms.

“Where are you, and were you able to retrieve my item?” asked Kovac

“In France handing other business. Course able to get it. When do you want?” to Mac’s ear Scar didn’t sound at all scared or like he was under duress.

“Good, I want it as soon as possible. Tomorrow at noon in Antwerp. I have some other business there.”

“Yes, where at?” Scar questioned.

“I’ll text you the address,” Then he was gone.

Jack looked excitedly at the others back at the safe house. “We know when and where he’ll be. Now let’s go set up a trap and nail that SOB once and for all!”

Kuckas - Bitches

Molim - Hello

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don't know if any of ya'll follow Lucas Till on Instagram, but the other day he posted some BTS stuff from MacGyver. They were at 'Cheyenne Mountain"!!! If that episode don't reference Stargate at least once, I think I'll blow a gasket, lol!


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: Well friends this is the last chapter of the last story in the series (wow, I never thought I would be typing those words, lol). I appreciate all the comments and follows and kudos they have meant the world to me, and please let me know what ya'll think, I appreciate all feedback! A huge shout out to Snowecat for her invaluable help! As always I do not own Stargate or MacGyver.

Jack hung up his cell phone. “So my team won’t be able to join us in Antwerp by the deadline. So it looks like it will just be us.” After they got back to the safe house Scar was put back in his room, while the others got together in the living room to plan what their next steps would be. Riley was finding the building plan for the address that Kovac had provided, while Jack had called to see if his team could come provide back-up.

Jack noticed that O’Neill was studying him, Mac and Riley. “You thinkin’ about asking us out or something?”

“I heard the junior prom was gonna be swell, wanna come?” O’Neill snarked.

“I’ll have to check my social calendar. I’m pretty popular.” Jack wasn’t one to let an opportunity pass him by. “I know you were assessing us for combat readiness.”

“Don’t get your panties in a wad Dalton. I can tell that you were Special Forces. Rangers?”

Jack shook his head, then with a grin said. “Delta, baby.”

With a wry shake of his head O’Neill responded, “I shoulda known; they have a certain, reputation.” Jack just shook his head and rolled his eyes. “How about the junior members of the band?” He motioned at Mac and Riley.

“What about your own shadows?” Jack shot back.

“Daniel and Teal’c were on my team for eight years, and Teal’c was the leader of his...” O’Neill paused for a second before Daniel filled in.

“His countries forces.”

“Yeah, his countries forces before he joined my team. I trust them both implicitly to have my back and hold off any small country, and a few large ones.” O’Neill repeated.

“Indeed,” was all that Teal’c added in his defense.

“I’ve figured out which end of the gun that the bullets go in by now.” Daniel added dryly.

“And I can take care of myself.” Vala volunteered.

“Yeah, she can take care of herself.”

Daniel murmured something that sounded like, “Ain’t that the truth.”

“So how about your people?” O’Neill challenged.

“Well Mac was…” Was all Jack could get out before Mac cut him off.

“Mac can defend himself. As you know I was Army EOD for three years, with Jack as my Overwatch for a year of that, after that I worked with Jack just about every day at the Phoenix Foundation. While I refuse to carry a gun, I can hold my own if need be.“

“I’ll freely admit that I’m not as badass as you guys, but I’ve been in the field with Jack and Mac for the past three years, and I am unstoppable with technology.” Riley pitched in, not wanting to be left out.

Turning to Daniel O’Neill asked, “Do I like attract geeks or something? Is it a cologne that I didn’t know that I wore or what?” Daniel just shook his head ignoring his friend’s theatrics. “Ok, tell us about Kovac.”

All eyes turned to Jack. He leaned forward making eye contact with everyone in the room. “Tiberius Kovac is one wily dude. Ten years ago I thought I had killed the man that my Delta unit had been hunting for the past twelve years, but somehow he survived. In the six months we have been pursuing him we’ve only laid eyes on him once.” Jack held up one finger for emphasis. “He is also paranoid, which makes my job that much harder. He always travels with at least two bodyguards, ex-Mossad trained. Sometimes he even travels with a small army like our President does, so trying to find a way to capturing or eliminate him has been hard. When going to meetings he prefers open spots like this warehouse, and will probably be set up right in the middle, so he can’t be snuck up on easily. There is more, but I think that’s the most relevant for this op.”

O’Neill nodded. “Tech girl you got those schematics for us yet?”

Riley raised an eyebrow at him, “First, it‘s Riley or Davis, _not_ tech girl. Second do you want it in Dutch, French or English?”

Jack tried not to grin too big, that was his girl! Damn, he had missed them while he had been gone.

“English is fine.” O’Neill replied mildly. “Can I see?” He extended his hand for the tablet.

Riley handed the tablet she had been working off of over. O’Neill studied it for a few minutes before placing it in the middle of the coffee table. “This looks pretty open, not many rooms, or a second floor. What is this used for again?”

“It used to be a liquidation warehouse, but it closed down a couple of months ago, the ownership is in question right now.” Riley recited from memory.

“Kovac likes to meet in places that have a murky ownership or are abounded or both.” Jack said.

O’Neill nodded, “That makes sense, and it would be harder to track him that way.” He looked at the schematics again. “Dalton, tell me what you think. I take Daniel, Teal’c, and Vala in from this direction.” He pointed to the left side of the warehouse. “We come in just behind Scar so that if that shifty weasel tries to sell us out, we’ll be ready. You and your team come in on our right, and secure the exit behind you leaving the only exit behind me. That way we have all the exits covered.”

Jack looked it over, “Looks good except for if he gets there early and has his men hide to trap us.”

“Do you think that’s a possibility?”

“It’s always a possibility.”

O’Neill nodded in agreement. “But what is your risk assessment for this op?”

Jack ignored Mac’s snort, like he was one to talk. “As long as he didn’t realize we flipped Scar, minimal.”

“I agree. So it’s a four hour drive to Antwerp from our present location. So let’s make it an early night, get our sleep in, and leave early in the morning.” O’Neill said.

“I think you’re forgetting something.” Daniel said when it became clear that O’Neill was wrapping it up.

O’Neill frowned for a second then slapped his forehead. “D’oh, The artifact thingy. Hey Teal’c, will you ask our prisoner where the artifact is.”

Teal’c bowed his head slightly and quickly went into the room returning moments later. “He said that he is to contact his courier. Once he has done that the courier will meet us at the location for the swap tomorrow.” Daniel sighed, and O’Neill shook his head.

“Oh, let him have his phone to set that up. But no playing Candy Crush!” O’Neill ordered

Teal’c merely raised an eyebrow, then said. “I will again stay with the prisoner.”

“Thanks T. Oh make sure he gives you the phone back after he texts the courier the drop off point.” O’Neill said off hand. Teal’c nodded, again, and then disappeared into the room with Scar. Daniel and Vala were the second to leave, with O’Neill close behind. That left Jack with Mac and Riley in the living room, again. The next morning was similar to the previous morning, but a lot more somber, they were on edge and everybody knew it. Jack almost burned the food several times, before Riley shoved him out of the way to take over.

Soon enough they were on the road in their surveillance van that was not designed for that many people. Daniel was again driving, this time with Jack riding shotgun. Teal’c sat right beside Scar in the floor beside the doors keeping an eye on him. Riley, Jack, Vala, O’Neill and Mac all sat where they found an open spot and were bounced around quite a bit.

A few miles from the city Daniel pulled over, and to let Jack in the driver’s seat while Mac climbed into the passenger’s seat. When they reached the meeting place, the SGC team members disembarked to find a good ambush position. Jack would kick himself later that he didn’t notice the extra equipment they took in. The Phoenix team members circled the block letting Scar out for his rendezvous with his courier. They watched him make the exchange from where they were parked.

“Scar has the box, we can take him now and lure Kovac in another way.” Mac asked over the comms. They then watched Scar enter the warehouse.

“We have eyes on Scar. Stick to the plan kid.” O’Neill ordered gruffly

Daniel chimed in, “Are you sure, we don’t know what is in the box so if we….” He trailed off. Jack could just imagine the look that O’Neill was giving Daniel to make him shut up like that. The plan was the SGC members enter first, then after they had confirmation of Kovacs arrival the Phoenix team would move in to their designated spot and they would take him down as Scar gave him the artifact. Jack refrained from calling it easy, because that would jinx it and he hasn’t come this far to jinx it.

“We have three cars that just pulled in.” Jack reported

Bozer’s voice came over the comms, “I’ve got ya’ll on satellite. Stay safe.”

“Kovacs is getting out. Two bodyguards are entering with him.” Jack waited a second to see if the cars would stay or go, when they left he breathed a sigh of relief. “The cars have pulled off. We’ll secure the exit.”

The three Phoenix agents quickly got out making their way over to the door that Kovacs recently entered. They silently entered, and Jack instructed Mac to make sure nobody got out that door. While Mac was doing his thing Jack quickly surveyed the room. The room was littered with stacks of stuff, there were armchairs, boxes of items, bar stools all in stacks around the area, but the middle was clear of everything except a table that had obviously set up for this meeting. Jack crouched behind one of the stacks while Riley was behind one to his right. Mac came up beside him.

“The door is permanently locked.” He reported quietly.

Over the comms O’Neill asked, “Are you sure.” Jack could hear the doubt in his voice.

Jack was about to tell them that if his boy said something was done it was done, but Mac beat him to it. “Nothing’s getting through that door, sir.” The smile on Mac’s face told Jack everything he needed to know. Jack raised his fist up to knuckle bump letting Mac know he did a good job.

Once everybody was into position Jack concentrated on the meeting going down in front of him. Scar was on one side of the table with the artifact sitting on top of it. Kovac was directly across from Scar facing both the teams, with his bodyguards flanking him. Jack couldn’t tell what they were saying from this distance, but figured they had to be haggling over a price. Once Scar slid the artifact towards Kovac and Kovac handed him a suitcase O’Neill came over their comms with one word.

“Execute.”

Jack stood up at the same time as O’Neill and Teal’c they all had their weapons raised.

“Everybody just freeze where they are.” Jack announced clearly. “Tiberius Kovac you are under arrest for terrorism and a whole bunch of other stuff.” Jack slowly advanced towards the man, but then Kovac’s eyes glowed, so Jack stopped unsure about what was happening. At first Jack thought he had to be having a stroke because people’s eyes don’t glow like that, but he heard O’Neill start cussing in his ear.

“Imbecile!” Kovac growled at Scar.

‘ _And that was not his normal voice_ ’, Jack thought, it was much lower, and had a weird quality about it. ‘ _What the heck was going on’?_

Kovac did something to the artifact and a drawer slid out with something laying on it. Kovac wasted no time in slipping his hand into it.

“Shit, a ribbon device.” O’Neill yelled. “Take cover!”

Jack didn’t know what a ‘ribbon device’ was but he understood the tone of O’Neill’s voice so he dove back to where he had been hiding and saw O’Neill and Teal’c doing the same. Not two seconds after he had hidden behind his pile of stuff something exploded. Jack looked at Mac who raised his hands and mouthed ‘it wasn’t me’ Jack peeked over the pile and saw that the bracelet thing Kovac had put on had a glowing red jewel in the middle. Then as he watched it sent a pulse right where O’Neill and the SGC members were hiding. Since Kovac was distracted Jack quickly got off two shots that bounced harmlessly off some sort of personal shield around the man. _What the hell was going on_? Jack thought. In his ear he heard O’Neill again.

“Daniel, this is just like with the Nox!”

“Yeah, but you don’t have a bow and arrow this time.” Daniel replied sounding breathless. Kovac’s guards had gotten in on the action and were peppering both areas with bullets, so everybody was keeping their heads down.

Mac asked, “Is his shield’s deflection capability directly proportional to the amount of kinetic energy being directed at it?”

“I’m pretty sure that’s exactly what Carter said the first time.” O’Neill said. “Can you do something about it?”

Jack watched Mac as he got that thinking look.

“Yeah, I’ll need a few minutes though.” Mac replied as he dashed over to where Riley was squatted. Jack looked back up to see what was happening with Kovac. He had one hand wrapped around Scar’s throat holding him in the air with his toes barely touching. He saw O’Neill pop up with a weapon he hadn’t seen before that shot a charge of some kind, it hit a body guard, and he went down. Then the other bodyguard turned towards Jack, so he ducked back down, but heard the noise that the weird weapon made. ‘ _When had they gotten those’_ , he thought.

Jack watched as Mac grabbed a few more items, and made his way back to where he was before and started assembling whatever it was that he was making. Over the comms he heard Teal’c, “I will attempt to flank them.”

“Go T, we’ll cover you with the zats.” O’Neill replied. Popping up and sending a few shots of that weird weapon towards Kovac.

Teal’c didn’t get far before there was a clattering sound, then a whoosh, and all of a sudden five more guys were firing at them. “Where did _they_ come from?” Jack asked nobody in particular.

With the increased firepower Kovacs laughed. “Give up now Taur’i, and I might spare some of your lives.”

“Yeah, that ain’t gonna happen.” O’Neill called back

“Almost ready.” Mac quietly said into his comms.

“So what’s your evil plan?” O’Neill called again. Jack figured he was trying to draw attention away from whatever Mac was doing, he though it looked like a large slingshot.

“You think I….” Kovac must have seen Mac stand up to deploy his weapon because he sent a pulse wave towards him the exact second that Mac let go of his contraption. Mac was slammed against the crate behind him, and fell into a pile at the foot of the crate.

Enraged, Jack stood up, and watched Kovac get his feet taken out from under him. While the one remaining original bodyguard was distracted, Jack and O’Neill each took one of the backups out. Daniel ran out towards Kovac. The remaining bodyguard shot him in the leg where he fell almost on top of Kovac.

“Now!” Jack heard someone say over the comms before the world went white. All of a sudden he was somewhere else. He swayed for a second trying to get his bearings. They were in a large open space with men in Air Force uniforms creating a loose circle with their weapons drawn. Everybody was there. Riley was still crouched where she had been, Mac was in a heap, and the SGC members were in the same positions they had been in a few seconds ago. Jack wanted to know what the heck was going on, but worry for Mac won over. He vaguely heard someone say, “We need medical to the flight deck, Medical to the flight deck.”

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

When Mac woke up he knew immediately that he was in a hospital. Even before he opened his eyes he heard the unique sound of a hospital, the smell of antiseptic, the beep of an annoying heart monitor, the even more annoying tickle of a nasal cannula, and he felt the pinch of where an IV was inserted. Upon opening his eyes he realized it wasn’t the usual one, he would have recognized it straight off. Then he thought ‘ _How sad is it that I know which hospital I’m not in by the ceiling?’_ With a sigh, he decided to see how bad off he was and try to figure out where exactly he _was_ , and why he was there. He tried to think back but all he got was his head pounding even worse. He must have let out a groan because a second later Jack was leaning over him. At least that was familiar.

Jack was grinning from ear to ear, “How you doin’ Bud?”

Mac tried moving, and everything seemed to move, but it all hurt. He was pretty sure even his eyelashes hurt. “Hurts. Wha’ happen?” _Dang he couldn’t even talk right_.

Jack chuckled, “You had a sudden meeting with a hard object. You got your brain scrambled a bit, and the docs say that your bruises have bruises.”

As Jack talked Mac’s mind began to clear a little and he remembered bits and pieces of what happened in the warehouse. Mac carefuly grabbed the control that sat his bed up so that he could see Jack better.

“What do you remember?” Jack asked after Mac got the bed where he wanted it.

A grunt of pain escaped his lips as he moved his arm to rub his aching head. He closed his eyes, trying to make the pain go away.

“You still here?” Jack gently asked, still standing over Mac’s gurney.

“I think so.” Mac managed to answer. He lay still hoping that if he didn’t move he would stop hurting. He heard someone walk up, then felt the familiar sensation of pain meds in his IV, in just a few minutes he relaxed a bit more as the pain became an afterthought. He moved his hand off his face and attempted to look at Jack once again.

“There you are! Better?” Jack gave him that smirk that said he knew he was right and wanted to make you admit it.

“Much. So what happened again? It’s still kinda scrambled up here.” He motioned to his head.

Jack’s grin came to its full wattage, “You’re never gonna believe this!” He paused for a second, “well you might. Anyway, so we are on a spaceship orbiting Earth.” He paused letting that sink in.

Mac blinked a few times trying to process what Jack had just said. “Did you just say that we were on a spaceship?”

“Yep! _The General Hammond_ ” Jack was practically vibrating with excitement.

“A spaceship?” Mac narrowed his eyes in suspicion. “Jack did you also get hit in the head? Remember that time you got a concussion that made you see….”

Jack cut him off. “First we agreed to never talk about that again, and second, We. Are. On. A. Spaceship. Earth looks really cool from up here.”

Mac held his hand up, “Help me up, I’ve got to see this.”

Jack didn’t move to help him, instead he got that look on his face that said, this wasn’t a good idea, “Are you sure that’s a good idea Hoss? They just dosed you with the good stuff.”

Since Jack wasn’t helping him Mac decided to try to sit up on his own, which proved to be a bad idea. The world started spinning and all the aches and pains that the pain meds had made go away came back with a vengeance. So he eased himself back down. He glanced at Jack, who still hadn’t moved, he had that annoying ‘I told you so’ look on his face. “So where’s Riley? She wouldn’t lie to me.”

“I’m not lying to you partner. We’re on a spaceship circling Earth.” Jack said yet again.

“He still won’t believe you?” O’Neill’s voice came from the foot of his gurney where the privacy curtains had been pulled. O’Neill batted them away and stepped through. “What Jack Two said is real.” He stopped and turned to Jack. “What did you tell him?”

“That we were on board the _Hammond_.”

O’Neill turned back to Mac, “Then what he told you was right. The docs tell me that you might have some memory issues so I thought I’d come by and fill you in on what happened while you were dreaming of lollypops and candy canes.”

Jack patted Mac’s arm. “I’m gonna go tell Riles that you’re awake, and let Bozer know, ok?”

Mac nodded his consent careful not to aggravate his pounding head again, and Jack stepped out the way O’Neill had come in. O’Neill had a seat on the end of the gurney, and eyed the Jell-O that was on a tray beside Mac, most likely courtesy of Jack.

“So after your little…” O’Neill trailed off gesticulating with his hands. “Thingamabob went off and took Kovac out, Daniel tackled him, allowing Carter to beam us onboard _The Hammond_ which had been in orbit. You were out thanks to Kovac slamming you against a crate. Daniel got shot in the leg right after that, but at least he didn’t die, again.”

Mac was baffled, ‘ _die again? What have I gotten myself mixed into?_ ’

O’Neill continued, “So it turns out that Kovac is an alien. Yes, aliens are real.” O’Neill paused looking surprised. “You don’t look surprised.”

Mac shrugged then bit back a moan, “Well with the billions of planets out there for there not to be life on other planets is statistically impossible. But I am surprised that they have visited Earth and look like us, unless ‘Men in Black’ was closer to the truth?”

O’Neill shook his head, “No, that series is complete garbage, but Roswell was much closer to the truth.” He paused for a second. “The place not the TV show, the TV show is also complete garbage. I’ll let Daniel explain it all to you some time, but what you need to know right now is that Kovac is an alien; that’s probably why he was able to survive being shot by Jack two.”

Mac had noticed that O’Neill was calling Jack, Jack two earlier, “Why are you calling….”

“Him Jack two?” O’Neill asked before he could finish his sentence, “Well I’m Jack one and he is Jack two. I figured I’d start numbering us Jack’s so we wouldn’t get mixed up.” He nodded obviously agreeing with himself. “Now where was I? Oh yeah, Kovac alien and all that. So he wanted to take over and all that jazz, so when he heard that Jack two and his team were after him again he must have wanted some more protection and when he heard that the artifact had been recovered he made his play for it.”

“So where is Kovac now?” Mac questioned.

“Oh, we got the ole sna….” Jack stopped himself. “We’ve got him locked up in the brig. He ain’t getting out.” He looked at his watch. “Well I’ve got a hot date with a blonde General. If you ever decided you’re tired of this spy stuff, we could use a man of your resources.” O’Neill glanced at the Jell-o again, then on his way out he grabbed it off Mac’s tray.

Mac sank back into his bed, he could hardly believe that he was on a spaceship, and had met an actual alien. ‘ _I wonder does this mean that all aliens are bad? But then how many aliens would be a sample size?_ ’ He started running the numbers for that particular statistic untill the medicine and math lulled him to sleep.

_One Week Later at Mac’s house_

“So you won’t tell us why you have been grinning like a Cheshire cat ever since you got back?“ Desi fixed Jack with that soul piercing gaze she had.

“Nope!” He announced and took another drink of his beer. The whole gang was celebrating Jack’s return at Mac’s house. They were spread all over the back porch with Bozer bringing out plate after plate of food.

Mac was sitting on one of the Adirondack chairs, he was finally beginning to walk like a normal person, and not an old man. Oversight was sitting in the other chair, and father and son were deep in some sort of conversation. Geeky science crap no doubt, Jack figured. Matty, Riley and Leanna were all sitting around the fire pit, no doubt planning on conquering the world or something. He and Dez were standing at the railing taking in the scenery. Man, Jack had missed being on that porch with his family.

“So have you made your decision?” Jack asked seriously. With Jack coming back Desi wasn’t really needed as Mac’s protector, but Oversight had offered to make her a permanent part of the Phoenix.

“I don’t know, I’m thinking about it.” She looked over at where Mac and his dad were sitting with this particular look on her face. Jack wasn’t sure if he liked that look or not.

With a grin he knocked her shoulder with his, “see I told you that they would get under your thick skin.” He said grinning.

She took a drink of her beer, “Yeah, like a splinter.”

He grinned at her, “Nah, more like a tattoo.”

_Meanwhile in Colorado Springs at a similar gathering_

All of SG-1 was gathered at Jack and Sam’s cabin celebrating them all being together, minus Mitchell; who was still in Kansas with his dad. O’Neill and Carter were sitting on the dock lazily casting their fishing lines. Daniel and Vala were relegated to the other side of the pond, because Vala was constantly talking or doing something. Teal’c was off procuring them some snacks; he had come a long way in the food department, Jack just hoped it was far enough to be edible.

“So, didya offer the Kid a job?” O’Neill asked casually as he cast his line. It settled with a nice plop on the water.

Beside him Carter was slowly reeling in her line. She casually nodded, “Yep, he said that he couldn’t leave his dad right then. Apparently the man has cancer.”

O’Neill looked at his wife, “Ya don’t say.” Carter nodded again, bringing her line all the way in. She check it then casted it back out in the pond. “Weren’t the Tok’ra just here the other day wanting more human hosts?”

She didn’t even bat an eye, “Indeed they were.”

He looked back at his own line, “Interesting.” Sensing that Carter was done talking about the Phoenix team he changed the subject. “So do you think Daniel will ever ask Vala to marry him? Girl was throwing clues left right and central. “

Carter laughed, “With them too who knows, she might have to plan the wedding then drag Daniel to it at gunpoint without them ever being engaged.”

“Married at gunpoint. Could be worse.” O’Neill shrugged reeling his line in.

Carter flashed him a brilliant smile, “Definitely could be worse.”

Just then her bobber went under. “Hey! I think I’ve got one!” She announced with glee as she slowly reeled it in.

“Oh for crying out loud!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N 2: Well that's all folks! As a bit of shameless self promotion be on the lookout for my next story Snow + Surgery! It's full of all sorts of hurt Mac! I hope to get the first chapter up in the next week or so (after I've had time to recover from Gish)


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